A monster night from Marsh powers Phillies to win over Rangers originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

ARLINGTON, TX – Before and after the trade deadline, both Dave Dombrowski and Rob Thomson talked of more offensive production being needed from within. Especially when it came to power. Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper can’t be the only true long ball or gap-hitting threats in the lineup.

The trade for outfielder Harrison Bader brought hope for another slugging bat, but also somewhat overcrowded an already platooning group of left and center fielders. And while Thomson said he has still not exactly figured out who will be mostly manning those positions for the stretch run, one player’s arm seems to be being raised higher and higher – much like his batting average.

Since an 0-for-31 stint in April left him at 4-for-42 on the season, centerfielder/leftfielder Brandon Marsh has gone 66-for-210, a .314 average. More recently, since July 25 he’s 17-for-35 (.486) with six doubles and four home runs in those 12 games. And a telltale sign may have happened Friday against the Texas Rangers in the fifth inning when Thomson allowed Marsh to hit with a runner on first and a lefthander came out of the bullpen.

All Marsh did was hit his second double of the evening, to go with a home run and a single in the game, leading the Phillies to a 9-1 win over the Rangers. They are now 66-49 on the season and lead the New York Mets by 3.5 games as they lost to the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday.

“To be honest, I’m just trying to take it at-bat by at-bat, day by day,” said Marsh. “I’m really just trying to stick to the approach, stay stubborn, just let the body work.

“I do my best to try and treat it the same way (facing a left hander). Them bringing in (Robert) Garcia was a little bit of a shock, but they’re going to their guy to try to get out of a situation and keep them in the game. I totally understand it. I do treat it like as a little challenge, but I feel like the more I do that the more I press. Just got to stay relaxed and treat it like any other at-bat.”

Cristopher Sánchez not only continued his domination throughout the league but proved again how high his maturity level has risen as he overcame a shaky first inning and finished the night with six innings pitched and just one earned run. He improved to 11-3 on the season.

He threw a whopping 25 pitches in the first inning while allowing a run and three hits. In the following five innings, he allowed no runs, just three more hits and threw a total of 100 pitches. He struck out six.

“Just staying calm and staying focused throughout that situation,” said Sánchez. “I think that’s one of the keys that got me through it today. They were showing me something else than what I had thought. I just tried to pitch to the opposite of what they were trying to do.”

The Phillies grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first as Schwarber blasted his 41st home run of the season, this one hitting three-quarters of the way up on the foul pole. It was his fourth homer in the past five games. The Phils put three more on the board in the fourth when Marsh led off with a line drive home run to right. After Otto Kemp and Bryson Stott walked, Trea Turner drove them in with a double down the left field line and the Phillies opened the lead to 4-1.

A bases-loaded double in the ninth by Bryson Stott knocked in two and a three-run home run by Turner turned the game into a route. Turner finished the night 2-for 4 with five RBI, a pair of walks and a stolen base.

“I think the power is there,” said Turner of the team. “Marshy has been swinging the bat really well, Nick has been hitting some homers, Kyle is obviously doing his thing, Bryce is going good. We talked about that power a lot in the first half and it’s starting to come out all down the lineup, not just one person and I think that makes a big difference.

Max Kepler, who started in left Friday, is among those trying to win the majority of playing time in left. Though he went 0-for-4, he didn’t disappoint his manager. “First at-bat he got the runner over, runner at second base, nobody out (on a dribbler to first after a Marsh double.

“Then he got jammed up a little bit the next couple at-bats and then he hits a bullet (hard liner to right). Outfielder made a great play. All in all, he did his job. You can’t control what happens after you hit the ball. As long as you hit it hard, that’s what you want.”

The way the pitching worked out Friday was almost exactly the way Thomson hopes it plays out for the rest of the season and in the playoffs. Have a starter, in this case Sánchez, give six or so strong innings, followed by an inning apiece from relievers (in Friday’s case Matt Strahm and Orion Kerkering), and then have closer Jhoan Duran nail it shut. Problem was, after Duran got warmed up, the Phillies put five on the board in the ninth. And Sánchez was his usual self.

“We’ve put a lot of innings on him the last couple of starts” said Thomson. “I think he was up a little bit today and just didn’t have the finish to his pitches that he normally does. But he grinded and battled through some adversity and got through it.”

Saturday, the platooning/auditioning will continue, as Thomson said he will start Harrison Bader against the great Jacob deGrom. Marsh’s lefthanded bat probably will be in the lineup against the righthander. Heck, he’s making the case that he should be in there against anybody. Maybe he’s making the manager’s decision a little bit easier.

“It was a really good offensive night,” said Thomson, “Nine walks, eleven hits and we put a lot of pitches on the pitching staff. It seemed like we had traffic early but just didn’t capitalize. Finally we got it done in the ninth.”

Several reasons Kai-Wei Teng's first MLB win in Giants victory worth celebrating originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO – Finally, the music was back to blasting in the Giants’ clubhouse. Strobe lights danced across the ceiling and a team tradition was reignited for all the right reasons after their first home win in exactly four weeks to the date.

As beer and who knows what were sprayed all over Kai-Wei Teng, he couldn’t see what was going on around him. He could barely even breathe. He also wouldn’t dare change a second of his Giants teammates celebrating his first MLB win. 

“It was a pretty special experience,” Teng said through interpreter Andy Lin. “I couldn’t even breathe when I was in the beer shower. I couldn’t even see. I couldn’t open my eyes. I just smelled some stinky stuff. I didn’t even know what that was.”

With two left-handed hitters atop the Washington Nationals’ lineup, Giants manager Bob Melvin used lefty reliever Matt Gage to open Friday night’s game at Oracle Park, coming back from a six-game road trip. Gage was able to sit the Nationals down in order, handing the ball over to Teng, who easily had the best performance of his young MLB career in the Giants’ 5-0 win to start off a nine-game homestand. 

Teng’s night began by striking out cleanup hitter Nathaniel Lowe in three straight pitches, making him look perplexed at a changeup that dropped off the table and into Patrick Bailey’s glove. He then struck out the next batter, Josh Bell, and retired the first six batters he faced. The sixth out ended on the defensive play of the night from the player who figured to grab the biggest spotlight. 

The story of the game was supposed to belong to rookie Drew Gilbert’s MLB debut, a former first-round draft pick acquired from the New York Mets in a trade one week ago that sent reliever Tyler Rogers to the Big Apple. Gilbert chased down a sliced liner down the right-field line and made a crowd-pleasing diving catch, stumbling but still finding a way to snag the ball into his glove. 

“I almost lost my footing in the first once I went over the line, so thankfully I was able to hold onto the ball,” Gilbert said. “I think I was OK with my face. Might have got a little dirt on it, but otherwise I was OK.” 

Throughout his five shutout innings, Teng, 26, kept finding ways to get out of adversity. James Wood doubled off the right-field wall to start the third inning, only to see Teng retire the next three batters. In the top of the fourth, he ran into his most trouble of the night, finding himself with the bases loaded and no outs. After a mound visit from Giants pitching coach J.P. Martinez, Teng forced a groundout to first baseman Rafael Devers on the first pitch, throwing Bell out at home plate. 

Just two pitches later, a curveball from Teng turned into an inning-ending double play. 

“Those are the biggest three outs of the game,” Melvin said. 

Teng credited Martinez with calming him right when he needed it most. 

“It helped me to settle down, just take a deep breath and figure out what kind of strategy and pitches I’m going to pitch and face the next batter,” Teng said. “It helped a lot.” 

The start to Teng’s major league career was far from calm. He pitched 11 innings out of the bullpen last season and allowed 12 earned runs with eight walks and seven strikeouts. Teng has bounced back and was enjoying a strong minor league campaign for Triple-A Sacramento this season, where he walked 3.5 batters per nine innings and struck out 14.3 batters per nine innings ahead of his return to the majors last Saturday. 

But because of one rough inning, Teng was tagged for five earned runs in a loss to the New York Mets over 3 1/3 innings. Like he did Friday night in front of more than 38,000 Giants fans, Teng wasn’t deterred from the ups and downs of baseball.

His final inning of his first big league win came against the Nationals’ one, two and three hitters in the lineup. Teng took them down in seven pitches, finishing his night by striking out Brady House on a sweeper that ended in the other batter’s box. 

The beer-induced celebration is a feeling and smell that will last a lifetime for Teng. The real celebration was 15 hours ahead in Taiwan, where Father’s Day was celebrated the same day Teng took the mound. Teng became the ninth Taiwanese-born pitcher in MLB history to earn a win, and the first since Wei-Chung Wang in September of 2019.

“I want to thank my dad for supporting me over the past 18 years. Anything related to baseball he was always there for me, and I’m just so glad he was there to support me,” Teng said. “I want to say I love you to my dad.”

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Mets manager Carlos Mendozaraised some eyebrows when he said his team is unable to make adjustments after Wednesday's loss to the Guardians.

Some took it as the skipper calling out his coaches and the players for not being able to figure out Guardians starter Gavin Williams, who was two outs away from pitching a no-hitter. It was the culmination of a terrible homestand where the team went 1-5 and have lost eight of their last nine games. 

And a large part of the slump has been the Mets' offense. Since the All-Star break, their team's OPS is .639, last in MLB, and their .213 batting average ranks 29th in baseball. 

Despite those numbers, the president of baseball operations, David Stearns, voiced his confidence that the offense will turn itself around.

"I believe in our guys," Stearns told the media prior to Friday's series opener against the Brewers. "Clearly, everyone’s frustrated. Players are frustrated. At times, I’ve been frustrated. But I believe this is a good offensive team, I believe in the process we have in place and I’m confident we’re going to see that going forward."

Stearns was then asked about the team's hitting coaches and whether they should be to blame for the team's offensive struggles.

"No. I have confidence in our hitting coaches," he said. "They have track records and lead and put together quality offenses. This is, at times, baseball. It will drive you crazy when you have talented players that go through stretches like this. Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve had a lineup where we’ve had stretches where we haven’t performed up to our capabilities. It’s frustrating and everyone is working as hard as they can to turn this thing around. And I think we will."

Mendoza was asked about the coaches before Friday's game, as well, but the Mets skipper echoed Stearns in giving them a vote of confidence.

"I think they are good at what they do," Mendoza said. "Making sure they get the message across. Extremely hard workers. Day in, day out not only the physical work but putting together game plans, starting pitchers, working on the mechanics. There’s a lot that goes behind the scenes. They are really good at what they do."

Stearns did acknowledge Mendoza's lack of adjustment comments from Wednesday, saying that it's a reasonable criticism and there have been discussions, but it's an "easier said than done" situation. But he believes in the veteran players to make those adjustments in-game, especially from the top of the lineup.

Over their last 15 games, entering Friday, Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto, Pete Alonso and Brandon Nimmo have gone a combined 48-for-232 (.206) with nine home runs and 68 strikeouts.

That inconsistency has put the Mets behind the eight ball in a lot of their games, but the team remain confident they will bounce back.

"I don’t have a silver bullet answer for [the inconsistency]," Stearns said. "We’re not the first good team to have periods in the season where we’re not clicking. I understand it’s unique when you have the quality of players at the top to go through some struggles at the same time. I completely understand why that raises some questions and why that raises frustration. But at the same time, we have to trust that these are really good players. They believe in themselves. As an organization, we certainly believe in them, and I have full faith that they are going to snap out of it. And we’re going to see a good offense."

"We got really good hitters. That’s where it starts," Mendoza said. "They’re really good players, they’ve done it before. When you’re going through it, it gets noisy. When you look at our players, when you look at that locker room there’s a lot of talent there. They’ll get out of it."

Mets prospectsNolan McLean and Brandon Sproatare "putting themselves in the position" to be called up, president of baseball operations David Stearns said while answering a question about the two right-handed pitchers before Friday's game on SNY.

"I think it's all part of the equation," Stearns said when asked how much "roster flexibility" factors into McLean and Sproat remaining with Triple-A Syracuse. "So, the roster situation's part of the equation. Ensuring that we treat their development appropriately is part of the equation.

"They're doing a great job. I think they're putting themselves in the position, when and if we have a need, we feel confident going down there and getting an arm. And we're going to continue to factor them in as we go through the rest of the season."

Stearns echoed his previous sentiments about timing.

"I think, ideally, you'd have some runway," he said. "I also understand that, sometimes, the realities of a major league season don't allow you to do that. So, ideally, yes -- if you're calling up someone like that, you'd like them to have a multiple-start runway. That would be my expectation, but there are no absolutes in this thing. Sometimes, we have to adjust to what the season gives us."

At the same time, Stearns kept his options open.

"I don't think we'd close the door on anything right now, especially as we get into the second half of the month, into September, where we have a little roster flexibility, you have the extra pitcher," he said. "I think it opens up a variety of different possibilities.

"We're in early August, and that is well into the season. We're in a pennant race. There's also a lot of baseball left. A lot of things are going to happen over the next month and a half, and we're going to put our roster and pitching staff in the best position to help us going forward."

McLean and Sproat, both 24, are Nos. 4 and 5 overall in SNY contributor Joe DeMayo's midseason top 30 prospects.

In 15 games (12 starts) for Syracuse this season, McLean is 5-4 with a 2.81 ERA and 1.09 WHIP.

Sproat, meanwhile, is 7-5 with a 4.10 ERA and 1.26 WHIP in 22 starts for Syracuse this year.

What we learned as Rafael Devers, Casey Schmitt homer in Giants' win over Nats originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

BOX SCORE

SAN FRANCISCO – Home had been a broken heart for the Giants before returning to Oracle Park on Friday night. 

The Giants dropped all six games on their previous homestand, as well as their last eight dating back to July 12, which was tied for their second-longest home losing streak in the San Francisco era. They made sure not to tie the record of nine with a 5-0 win against the Washington Nationals to start a nine-game homestand over the next 10 days.

Every facet of the game – offense, defense, baserunning and pitching – was a positive for the Giants. Between Matt Gage and Kai-Wei Teng, nine straight Nationals came to the plate without reaching base to begin the game. The bullpen then continued to do their job, too. 

Rafael Devers and Casey Schmitt each homered, the Giants outhit the Nationals 10-4 and all but two of their batters recorded at least one hit.

Here are three takeaways from the Giants’ first home win in exactly four weeks.

Open And Shut

In between starts for rookie Carson Whisenhunt and 42-year-old Justin Verlander, the Giants went the non-traditional route of using an opener to start their three-game series with the Nationals. The decision couldn’t have gone any better for Gage and manager Bob Melvin. 

Gage took down the Nationals in order, needing only 17 pitches to do so. He induced two straight fly outs to begin the game and ended his one inning, striking out Brady House with a nasty slider. His night was done, passing the torch to Teng. 

And Teng took the Giants as close to the finish line as they could have hoped. 

Teng made his first MLB start last Saturday and was tagged for five runs over 3 1/3 innings against the New York Mets. His fortunes were much better on Friday, throwing five scoreless innings out of the bullpen. Teng ran into trouble in the fifth inning when the Nationals loaded the bases without any outs. 

Just three pitches later, Teng clawed his way out of the jam. He forced a force out on a grounder to first base and then got Jacob Young to ground into an inning-ending double play. The right-hander allowed three hits, one walk and struck out four over five strong innings.

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When Drew Gilbert swung through a changeup to strike out in his first MLB at-bat Friday night, he licked his lips and looked back at the mound as if he now knew he belonged. Butterflies could drift away. Everything quite literally could only go up from there. 

Any frustrations he had from that at-bat didn’t follow him to the outfield. The Giants lost a defensive weapon in the way Mike Yastrzemski manned right field, but Gilbert already gave him a run for his money in his first game sporting the orange and black. Gilbert raced to the right-field corner with two outs in the top of the third inning and perfectly executed a face-first dive to the delight of Giants fans. 

At the plate, Gilbert wasn’t as fortunate. The 24-year-old who turns 25 next month followed his strikeout with two groundouts and a pop out. Gilbert, in five games for the Sacramento River Cats, was 7-for-14 with two triples and a double since being acquired from the Mets.

Bye, Bye Baby

The Giants and Nationals combined for a lowly 12 runs over three games earlier this season. San Francisco scored seven of those runs, tallying for more than half that total Friday night in the second series of the season between these two teams. 

Leadoff batter Heliot Ramos scorched a line drive to center, marking how well the Giants saw the ball all game. Dever immediately one-upped Ramos, hammering a 427-foot homer to give the Giants an early lead they held onto all night. Matt Chapman, two batters late,r added another run with a single to center that scored Willy Adames.

This was a night about the Giants rounding the bases. Chapman doubled later in the game, and Patrick Bailey unhitched the trailer for his third triple of the season after having two in his first two years in the big leagues. Singles, doubles and even triples will never live up to the long ball, though.

The party continued when Schmitt joined Devers in jogging the bases with a deep shot of his own in the sixth inning. The two-run blast improved the Giants’ record to 23-6 when they hit multiple home runs in a game this season.

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